Modern stamps do so much to honor milestones of institutions. Perhaps too much, wouldn’t today’s letter writer rather get excited about where his people are going rather than how his ancestors were long ago. So to make it more relatable, I thought I would get into why the institution on this stamp got going, and a little on how close it is sticking to it’s mission. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I am afraid this is a fairly drab likeness of the historic building that houses the Francisco-Carolinum Museum. The drab presentation is done perhaps to imply correctly that the museum has itself downplayed the historic in order to display mainly modern photograph arts. Well those folks probably throw better conventions than the history crowd.
Todays stamp is issue A655, a 4 Shilling stamp issued by Austria on November 4th, 1983. It was a single stamp issue honoring the 150th anniversary of the museum administative organization of Upper Austria in Linz. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.
The museum was founded by Linz lawyer and city administrator Reichritter Anton von Spaun. von Spaun was an avid collector of historic documents and his personal collection became a basis for the archive. A special interest of his was the folk music and folk dancing of the area. He felt knowledge of this past was at risk of being lost with the movement of people to the cities.
The historic building that houses the museum was acquired in 1895 and the agency has since acquired a local castle and taken charge of several other historic sites around Upper Austria.
Understandably there was a big reorganization of the organization in 1946. The emphasis of the flagship museum changed from preservation of the historical record of the area toward displays of a now fairly extensive collection of modern art with an emphasis on photography. Perhaps an interesting lesson of what happens to even a well funded history museum and archive when nobody cool wants to talk history.
Well my drink is empty and perhaps I have had enough as that photo of the girl from the museum collection just seems a blur. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.